LAPLAND JOURNEY 
79 
Asia or Africa, for the character of the soil, the 
situation, and the plants were strange to him. Nearly 
all the plants which he had met with on his journey 
were here found in such abundance, that he was 
frightened, and it seemed more than he could manage. 
During the succeeding days, so long as he remained 
among the fells, he was constantly encountering plants 
he had never seen before, as his sketches in his diary 
testify. As to the animal world, he became acquainted 
with lemmings, char, alpine ptarmigan and others. 
Reindeer were the object of his eager interest and 
accurate observation; he had good opportunities for 
their study, as the Lapp huts near which they were 
to be found were as innumerable as the forests, form¬ 
ing a crowd like ants in an ant-heap. 
Accompanied by his interpreter from Qvickjock, 
who was annoyed by Linnaeus stopping here and there 
for plants, he directed his course still further among 
the fells, where he had to live by favour of the Lapps, 
subsisting on what he could obtain from them. He 
did not neglect to note and sketch when necessary all 
that pertained to the Lapps’ way of living, clothing, 
illnesses, etc. It seems that he quite enjoyed this 
strange world, so full of noteworthy objects and 
occurrences, even though he was compelled to reconcile 
himself to such poor food as was set before him, and 
to endure the lack of cleanliness, which sometimes 
even took away his appetite. He also complained of 
the flies being excessively troublesome. 
During these wanderings he paused a little now 
and then, and by the ioth of July, he reached the lake 
Virijaur. Here he met with an adventure which 
might have been fatal. As he passed over a snow- 
field, which a stream had undermined, he broke 
through and would have fallen to the bottom had he 
not luckily saved himself, but only half-way, by the 
grip of his hands. His companion hastened to a 
Lapp hut near by, and he was drawn up by a rope 
little injured, although wet and so severely bruised 
